An Empty Ghost
by Shockeye7665
Summary: Hera feels the effects of Kanan and Ezra's absence from the Ghost, after Kanan decided he wanted to have no part in the Rebellion. One Shot.


**Disclaimer: Star Wars does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Disney.**

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It had been a successful mission, once again. The _Ghost_ had lead Phoenix Squadron on a raid on an Imperial prisoner convoy.

While the _Ghost_ took care of the escorting cruisers, and the A-Wings took care of the TIE Fighters, a CR90 Corvette containing a squad of soldiers managed to dock onto the prisoner transport and fight their way through, to reach the prisoners.

Freeing them, the soldiers managed to get back to the corvette, which then got away, under the cover of the Ghost and the A-Wings, which had all pretty much destroyed all TIE Fighters and escorting cruisers in record time.  
Then, they got away through hyperspace, mission accomplished. Commander Sato was very proud of Hera for her actions that enabled the rescue team enough time to rescue the prisoners.

And now the Ghost was on it's way to Phoenix Squadron's hidden bases across Garel City, where they were planning to hide out and rest up.

In the Ghost's cockpit, Hera was piloting the Ghost with Chopper at her side, while Zeb and Sabine were sitting down on the chairs behind and across from Hera, before they all left for their cabins.  
At first, there was silence, then Hera noticed that something was wrong, as she idly knew that Kanan and Ezra would be somewhat speaking.

But then, she remembered that Kanan and Ezra were not around any more.

And soon, her memories went right back to when Kanan left, on _Phoenix Home_.

In retrospect, she should have really seen it coming.  
After his rescue from the hands of the Inquisitor over Mustafar, and his learning that the Ghost was now part of the Phoenix rebel cell, which was a cell of a wider rebellion against the Empire, Kanan had shown signs of displeasure of being involved in the rebellion, and had wanted the Ghost and the crew to leave, only for more signs of displeasure to show on his face when Zeb, Sabine and Ezra had displayed various positive responses to joining a wider rebellion.

But the final straw, was _that very day_ , when Hera noticed that Kanan was communicating with Ezra over a non-encrypted communication line, which was against the communications protocols.

" _Kanan, what were you thinking, not following communication protocols_!?"  
Kanan had taken a while, before he glanced at her, and heavily sighed, before he curtly said 'sorry', in a disdainful way that she picked up on.

As he had walked away, curiosity had gotten the better of her, before she had asked what was bothering him.  
And he said it, " _All this, rank and file stuff, this 'sir, yes sir' stuff, this protocol nonsense that we all seem to be taking on without any say of whenever we want to be in this rebellion!_ "  
" _Kanan, this rebellion answered our call, and went to save you at Mustafar!_ "  
" _I appreciate that, but what I do not appreciate, is that we've seem to have been drafted into this rebellion. This is not what I signed up for_ ".

And despite the fact that Hera had a suspicion on what his answer was going to be, she had asked anyway, " _And what did you sign up for, Kanan?_ "

Instead of answering her question, Kanan had paused, before he sighed and said instead, " _All those years, since Gorse, and you've been lying to me_ ".  
That question had thrown her off, " _What?_ ", only for Kanan to finally give his answer, " _I thought that when I joined you on the Ghost, after saving Cynda, that there was potential, for something special between us. Me and you, and a small crew, to make trouble and give out for those in need. Now I just see that you never wanted that. You just wanted a Jedi as one of your little soldiers to command and push around a table_ ".  
Hera had been shocked at that statement, " _Kanan, that's not true and you know it!_ ", only for Kanan to snap at her, " _Do I? In case you haven't noticed, Hera, fighting alongside a soldier and to be a soldier was not what I signed up for_ ".  
" _We're fighting a bigger fight. Bigger than Lothal. But it's still the right fight_ ".  
" _Really? You say that now, but you have no idea, how much a war will make you sacrifice your ideals, your very fibre of your being, everything that makes you what you are, in order to win. Sooner, or later, you're going to be asking questions about whenever there's much difference between the Empire or the Rebellion. The Jedi Order certainly did, during the Clone War, and look what happened_ ".  
" _Kanan_..."

The man in question had held up a hand for silence, and despite wanting to get a word in, Hera listened as Kanan laid it all out for her, " _The thing is, Hera, you want to be a part of this rebellion. And I know there's no force in the galaxy that would ever make you stop. And if there's one thing I know about you, is that you always strive to make people see through to their full potential, to be better than what they are. And I love you for it".  
_ Hera was silent, shocked at his words, but Kanan wasn't finished, _"But no matter how much you may feel for me, I know that I'm always just going to be an asset to you, and your rebellion. Well, I'm not. And I'm not getting into another war. I quit_ ".

Hera's heart had fallen, and tried so hard to persuade him to stay, not wanting their efforts in saving him over Mustafar to account for nothing.

But to no avail. Kanan left the ship and departed for goodness knows where.

Then after Kanan left the ship, Ezra had left also, not because he didn't want to not want to join the wider rebellion, far from it, but he wanted to persuade Kanan to come back.  
A part of Hera hoped that Ezra would succeed, but every day that went on, without Ezra coming into contact and telling her that the both of them were coming back to the Ghost, was quite disheartening for her.

In the days, and the weeks that followed, Hera had thrown herself into her work, settling into the role of planning out and commanding missions, as well as taking orders from Commander Sato on new objectives for her and the crew of the Ghost to perform on behalf of Phoenix Squadron.  
But despite her aptitude for it, Hera could not ignore that a gaping hole in her life was there, and her work was not filling it up as much as she would have liked.

And she knew the origin of that gaping hole in her life.  
Kanan and Ezra's absence.

Ever since the two of them had left the Ghost, the Ghost felt a whole lot emptier without them, without their presence, and the synergy that they just seemed to bring to this crew.

Hera did wonder if Sabine and Zeb were feeling the sense of absence that seemed to fill the Ghost nowadays, and wondered how they were really feeling about it all, underneath their exterior that seem to suggest that they were all taking it in their stride, not feeling affected by Kanan and Ezra's absence.

Hera hadn't been too dismayed all those years ago, when potential recruits who refused to join her crew on the Ghost, because they felt that the Empire could not be beaten, and was there to stay, because she knew otherwise, and she could take it, having hope for a future free from the tyranny of the Empire.  
But, from a gunslinger on Gorse who had changed so much from a life goal of just surviving this galaxy, to wanting to make a difference to the people of Lothal, the fact that he wouldn't stay, to fight a war against the Empire, not for her, despite all their years together, hurt quite a lot.

 _Oh, Kanan_..., thought Hera, before a concerned binary 'whop' from Chopper, broke her out of her musing, making her now realise that she was subconsciously rubbing her right hand against her heart and had a slight tear in her eye.

But when Hera turned in her seat to face him, pull a smile, and say to her droid that she was fine, Chopper made a noise to suggest that Hera was not fooling him, and wanted to know if she needed anything from him.

Sadly, Hera smiled back, saying, "No. Not for the moment Chopper. But thanks for trying, anyway".

As Chopper, who seemed to look a bit dismayed (something Hera didn't see a lot in her droid often), then left the cabin, leaving her all on her own in the cockpit, Hera turned her attention to the blue and whites of hyperspace, hoping that somewhere out there, in the galaxy, wherever he may be, Kanan might find what he was looking for, whatever it was.

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 **This idea came from my observations of Kanan's displeasure of joining the wider rebellion, in "The Siege of Lothal", and basically this story shows what I think, would happen if Kanan had turned away from it all.**

 **I hope I portrayed Hera correctly here all according to her character, as this was what I predicted for her to react if Kanan had left the crew.**

 **Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!**


End file.
